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Friday, October 7, 2011

Operation Julie's Smile

Hi Everyone,

I am so glad that you joined us on this amazing blog hop forOperation Julie's Smile. If you came here from the super talented Tami Mayberry's blog, then you are in the right spot. If not, you may want to start from the beginning at the Sweet Stamp Shop's blog and take your time. You have all weekend to hop with us and win prizes!

The creative blogging community is coming together this weekend to help one of our friends, Julie Ranae. You may know her as the Design Team Coordinator for many wonderful companies from bakers twine, die cuts, rubber stamps and more. Last summer, Julie asked me to be a Guest Designer for the PlayDate Cafe and I was so excited to be part of this fun crafty challenge and as I chatted back and forth with Julie about the challenge, I was so charmed by her sweetness, kindness and positivity - she is just one of the sweetest people.

What many people don’t know about Julie Ranae is that she has had some pretty major dental surgeries in her lifetime due to medication she had to take as a child. It was in her plans to think about having all of her teeth replaced at some point in the next 5 years, a decision that was pretty easy to plan out. But then it happened…she chipped her front teeth on a weekend a month ago. The dentist told her there was no way to save them and that it was his recommendation that she give in and have them all her teeth removed soon, but for that day, they needed to get her front teeth done so her gums could begin to heal. He said he would 'work out payments with her to have ALL this work done...but when she called to make her appt for the first step of impressions, they told her the amount of money that was needed and that the 'payments' applied only to the two teeth that were extracted that day. Her husband Paul was with her and that too, was his understanding as well. So this is how she has found herself in this situation… Needing at least $4000 to get started and another $3000 to finish the process…a total of $7000.

Nicole Rixon, owner of Sweet Stamp Shop put together this benefit after finding out about this situation and before Julie Ranae knew it, it took flight! Because Julie is an event organizer by trade, she has taken on the job of organizing all of the blogs in this hop as her way of ‘working overtime’ for what she needs, the same as if she were able to work overtime at an outside job to pay for the work to be done. It is the goal of all of these generous friends and sponsors to help make this situation more do-able for our friend so that she can share a brand new smile with all of us soon.

If there is anything you can do to help with a financial donation, there is a donation button ready for you to click. Any amount is appreciated and ALL DONATIONS will be eligible for prizes from our sponsor pool of over $2500.

Prizes from all of the wonderful sponsors from today's hop are available in two ways:

from Blog comments that are left on all of the people on today's blog hop

from the PayPal Donation list

For today's post, I wanted to create a special card for dear Julie - I know that these past few months have been rough for her and wanted to send her some sunshine. I used this sweet image from Unity Stamps: Silver Lining (Bella Blvd). I stamped the clouds and created a silver lining with my liquid pearls which I also used on the frame for the sentiment with my nesties. I popped up a side panel that I wrapped around with twine and then slipped some red hearts in between the twine.

Julie is such a beautiful individual, and I hope that this blog hop will help her smile bright with full confidence! I know that Julie has been feeling shy and vulnerable to share this with everyone and I hope she knows that she is very much loved and appreciated by all those around her. I hope you have enjoyed your stop here on the hop! The next stop is at Emily Lamham's wonderful blog.

Make sure you leave a comment here before you go so that you can have a chance at the amazing prizes up for grabs and if you can, please make a donation so we can help bring back a new smile for our friend.

Gorgeous card! Love all the different pp you used to create this beauty, and your sentiment is absolutely correct. Everyone involved in this weekend's blog hop is proof positive that "every cloud has a silver lining"! ;o)

My dear Sankari...thank you so much for the lovely post and your kind encouragement through this time. Our paths crossed and I am so very thankful. I hope that you were able to make new friends along this blog hop journey as well.

Hi, my name is Sankari and I am the lucky mom of 2 darlings. I love being with my family, laughing and learning. I am an Ayurvedic consultant, a professor and also love to stamp and scrapbook. I am so happy to be able to meet so many wonderful crafters in blogland - you are my inspiration! Drop a line and say hi :)